Countering the Castro effect
- From: bromselick@xxxxxxx
- Date: 29 Sep 2005 07:38:52 -0700
(A perfect headline to grab readers' attention in a place like Miami,
but not exactly what readers of these e-mails might expect, and very
pleasing indeed to see this column coming out of a Miami paper...)
==================================================================
Countering the Castro effect
By Jack King
Columnist for the Miami Sun Post
<http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Jack_King&otherweek=112797
0000>
(Editor's Note: A few weeks back I received an email from Jack King
who writes a weekly King of Miami column for the Sun Post. He wanted
to meet with Max Castro and I - saying he enjoyed and appreciated
Progreso Weekly and the work we were doing. The result of that
meeting is this column. It hit the mark Jack, thank you! Progreso
Weekly has decided to reprint it.)
I don't think anyone who has lived in Miami for any length of time
would argue with the premise that the single event that has changed
this city the most over its history was Fidel Castro's takeover of
Cuba. His rise to power and its repercussions have defined the
economics and politics of our neighborhood for the past 40 years and
possibly for the next 40 years. And I think it has changed the
economics very much for the better and the politics so very much for
the worse.
Several years ago Channel 10's Michael Putney said that Fidel Castro
was the most powerful and influential politician in South Florida.
He is so right. Nothing happens in this town unless there is some
reference to Fidel. And if Fidel weighs in on an issue, all the local
Cubans vote the opposite of what he said. It can be the school board,
the Sweetwater City Commission, whatever; Fidel controls them all in
a very backwards way, and they let him.
Even at the national level, with our three Cuban representatives and
our Cuban senator, nothing happens until they find out how Fidel
feels about it. How else could we have such silly policies as the wet
foot, dry foot immigration for Cubans only and different policies for
everyone else, and such silly programs as TV Marti, a broadcast
system that costs millions of dollars each year but which no one ever
sees? Fidel said they were bad ideas, so we get them. The way Fidel
plays the local Cuban politicians like a cheap tambourine is just
amazing to me.
In the early days of the Cuban diaspora, the Miami Herald did a very
good job in pointing out the incongruities in the "hate Castro at all
costs" program. Even though it was not very funny to the Cuban
community, it sure seemed like a three-ring circus to the rest of us.
Eventually the Herald tried to cash in on the Hispanic market and
started El Herald, a full-scale joke of a newspaper. By this time the
Cuban community so despised the Herald that nothing they did would
bring back the Hispanic audience.
Several years later, with Dade County nearly 50 percent Hispanic and
with Herald revenues plummeting, they dumped El Herald and started
El Nuevo Herald, like no one in the Hispanic community would notice.
Even though it was stuffed with flaming anti-Castro, right wing
nutcase writers, the Cuban community still hated it.
And that's where we are now, with the Herald newsroom sold out to the
anti-Castro forces and El Nuevo Herald becoming bigger. So, now we
really don't know what's really happening in Cuba, or anywhere else
for that matter.
Several years ago a fellow named Francisco Aruca, who believed that
the only way to work things out between Cuba and America was with
dialogue, started an AM radio program to give us a little better and
more open view of just what is happening. Bear in mind that people
who espouse dialogue with Cuba are generally shot or have their cars
blown up. But Aruca has soldiered on and is still alive. Along with
the radio show he started a Web site called Progreso Weekly. It was
essentially a written version of the radio show, but with a few
extras.
Francisco is a whirling dervish who never stops moving. But adding
the Web site nearly killed him, so he passed it on to his compatriot
Álvaro Fernández. Álvaro has expanded the Web site,
www.progresoweekly.com, adding a number of new writers. It is now
getting about 300,000 hits a month. Seems like there might be a few
people out there who really want to find out the truth.
One of Álvaro's first writers to come on board was Max Castro. An
academic and sociologist by trade, Max had been writing some very
interesting and insightful columns for El Herald in Spanish for then
publisher David Lawrence. Lawrence soon had him writing for the big
Herald and he generated quite a following. When Lawrence departed,
new publisher Alberto Ibargüen didn't take too kindly to Max's
liberal bent and canned him. Álvaro had him working in short time for
Progreso Weekly.
A little aside here: I first met Max about a year after the Elian
Gonzalez debacle. Ofra Bikel and her New York-based production team
were in South Florida to do a one-hour show for Frontline on PBS.
They needed some private homes to conduct the interviews from, but
couldn't find a single homeowner in Miami who would allow them in.
That is, until they met me. They interviewed Max, myself and, just to
show you that there were more than just hippy dippy liberals on the
show, Ramon Saul Sanchez.
What Álvaro Fernández is doing on the Web site is just magical. The
content changes every week and generally has about 10 columns. There
are also some special pieces, like the "BS Detector," which
generally
compares what the Herald is saying to what real newspapers are
saying.
There, in about 800 words, I have introduced you to three Cuban
Americans who believe the only way to solve the Cuban-American issues
are through dialogue. Not war. Not lies. Not ranting and raving. Not
intimidation. Not BS. Just talking.
I bet you didn't know there were three! If you listen to the Cuban
American National Foundation and its ilk, they would tell you there
are zero.
I hope Progreso's 300,000 readers grow to 3 million. This
neighborhood needs and deserves good journalism.
The Web site is www.progresoweekly.com and is in both English and
Spanish.
Comments? E-mail jking@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx .
http://www.miamisunpost.com/KNGOFMIAMI.htm
.
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